"It was a successful friendly all round. We stretched ourselves in spite of the intense sessions to get to the next level. The players did brilliantly and they forced a very intense match on the opponents with lots of successful pressing," said Pätzold: "We got our goals through winning a lot of possession. The opponents were really good technically and in terms of running in the first half. Compared with the Anderlecht game, we made progress in our build-up play and showed more precision in the final third in the second half. We were able to create several chances with lots of deep runs. We clocked up a lot of metres and that will do us good in respect of the game against Freiburg and you could see that everybody is competing for their place in the squad."
As in last Friday’s 1-0 win in the friendly against Anderlecht, Pätzold fielded two different teams against the team ninth in the Segunda Division Pro, the second tier in Spanish women's football. In addition to Loreen Bender (recovery after tonsillitis operation), Vanessa Haim (rehab after back problems) and Juliette Vidal (broken nose), who did not travel to Spain, Synne Skinnes Hansen (rehab training) and the slightly injured Cornelia Kramer were not in the squad either. The duo trained instead on their own as did the two keepers Friederike Repohl and Anne Moll.
The Werkself took control of the game from start with the Spaniards playing with a packed defence. The Leverkusen Women were rewarded for their pressing in the opening stages. Captain Kögel intercepted a pass in the opposition build-up and scored the early opener (13') from 20 metres out. A great move saw the lead doubled just three minutes later. Janou Levels set up Kehrer in the box for a tap-in at 2-0.
The Bayer 04 Women continued to press the opposition on the back of the successful start of the game. Boboy tried her luck from distance but the Villarreal keeper Carmen Carbonell was on her toes (25’). The Black and Reds dominated proceedings up to half-time with the exception of isolated attempted counter-attacks from the Spaniards. Boboy missed the chance to make it 3-0 (40') in a one-on-one with Carbonell and other long-range efforts did not miss by much. The Women took a richly deserved 2-0 lead into the break.
It was again one-way traffic in the second half. After a near miss, Vilhjalmsdottir scored the next goal from a fine pass by Kehrer (57’). Shortly after that, Boboy scored on the rebound minutes after coming on again after a shot from Julia Mickenhagen was blocked (66').
At the other end, the Werkself were unable to effectively clear a Villarreal attack with Laura Riquelme netting a consolation goal (69'). Just three minutes later, Menglu received a diagonal ball from Melissa Friedrich and restored the previous lead in a one-on-one (72'). The Bayer 04 Women created a lot more chances in the closing stages with Boboy missing one after a great pass from substitute Paulina Bartz who was making her comeback after months on the sidelines. The match ended with the scoreline at 5-1.
There are four more training sessions in Oliva over the coming days. That will be followed on Saturday, 18 January (14.00 CET, 3×40 minutes) by a friendly against second division Union Berlin who are also at a training camp in Spain. The squad will travel back to Leverkusen the next day. Match action in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga comes on Sunday, 26 January (12.00 CET) with the rearranged game from Matchday 1 away to SC Freiburg. The Werkself are then away to Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday, 31 January (18.30 CET). The full winter timetable is HERE.
Match stats:
Villarreal starting XI: Carbonell - Perez, Miguelez, Cienfuegos, Gomez, Gil, Romero, Perez, Pinto, Vicente, Ensenat
Bayer 04: Voll - Schwartze (Merino Gonzalez 46'), Bragstad (Ostermeier 46'), Turanyi (Friedrich 46'), Levels (Mickenhagen 46') - Grant (Zdebel 46'), Piljic (Daedelow 46') - Vilhjalmsdottir (Lindner 59’/Bartz 85’), Kögel (Menglu 46') - Boboy (Lillemets 46'), Kehrer (Boboy 65’)
Goals: 0-1 Kögel (13’), 0-2 Kehrer (16’), 0-3 Vilhjalmsdottir (57’), 0-4 Boboy (66’), 1-4 Riquelme (69’), 1-5 Menglu (72’)
Attendance: 30 at the Oliva Nova Sports Center
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